Typically, toilet seat lids are readily opened, providing easy access into the interior of the toilet bowl. For sanitary and safety reasons, it is often the case that such easy access by restricted or prevented.
It is well known that an exposed toilet bowl can create an attractive hazard to a small child. Not only does the open bowl create an intriguing depository for any number of small items, it also creates a pool of water into which a child can crawl or slip into with tragic results. In addition to the drowning hazard, serious injury may also result from ingestion of the bowl water as poisonous chemicals are often used to maintain a sanitary condition in the bowl. An exposed toilet bowl can also provide a similar hazard to household pets, such as cats or dogs, which are often drawn to the bowl as a source of drinking water. Even when the toilet lid is in the down or closed position, toddlers as well as large pets are able to raise the lid in order to access the water in the interior of the bowl.
In addition, there are also circumstances whereby it is desirable for hygienic and sanitary reasons, to deny access to the open interior portion of the toilet bowl should the lid be lifted. For example, the toilet unit may be inoperable, the water line may be clogged, the water supply may be turned off, or the toilet unit may be in a model home and not connected to functioning sanitary services. In these instances, simply restraining the lifting of the toilet lid would not be effective, and it would be desirable to also block access to the interior of the bowl once the lid has been lifted.
Numerous different designs for toilet seat lid and toilet seat locks are known in the art. Typical designs frequently involve variations on a hinge-like unit adapted to be installed along the edge of the bowl and overlap the seat and lid. Such units are described, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,669,081; 4,736,472; 4,502,167; 4,479,273; 4,395,784 and 4,145,771, which describe variations of a lock unit that is mounted on an outer surface of the rim portion of the bowl and includes an elongated cover retaining element that extends over the outer surface of the toilet seat cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,130 describes a toilet seat cover safety latch that replaces the hinge portion of the toilet seat lid and provides resistance to the lifting of the lid. U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,049 describes a toilet seat safety device that comprises a cloth wrapping that covers a portion of the front of the seat lid, seat and toilet bowl and is secured behind the rear portion of the bowl. U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,824 describes a rigid housing member having an interior cavity that is contoured to fit over the toilet seat and bowl unit.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,937,449 and 4,296,504 describe different variations of a locking member located on the interior surface of the toilet seat lid which are adapted to engage the inner rim of the toilet seat and a receiving member affixed to the interior of the toilet bowl, respectively. U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,843 describes an automatic toilet seat closing apparatus that operates on a controlled release of air.
Most of the known locking devices, however, contain one or more features that have prevented their general acceptance and wide spread use. Many are complex, unsightly, expensive to produce, difficult to install and hard to keep clean and sanitary. In addition, many of the known toilet safety devices require alteration of some portion of the toilet unit itself, or require unsightly attachments or accessories.
Moreover, while the known devices provide many different means for denying access to the interior of a toilet bowl by restricting the lifting of a toilet seat lid, none of these devices provides this safety feature should the toilet seat lid be lifted.
The principles of the present invention provide a device that securely blocks access to the open interior portion of the toilet bowl even when the lid is lifted. The principles of the present invention may be readily applied to any style toilet unit without any alteration or modification of the toilet seat, the toilet seat lid, the toilet bowl, or the toilet water flush tank. The device is simple to install and use, easy to clean, inexpensive to manufacture and requires little or no maintenance to retain its effectiveness.